Crackling noise upon playback

Audacity Help Forum Windows
1

I’ll try to be succinct! Recently I started hearing crackling through my very old headphones, while playing back recordings through Audacity 2.4.2. My headphones are plugged in to my Focusrite Scarlett Solo interface (itself less than 1 year old). I replaced the headphones with brand new OneOdio Studio Pro10-p phones (upon a recommendation). Better sound, but still occasional crackling. Have previously un/reinstalled Audacity as well as drivers for the Scarlett.

Sometimes it crackles, sometimes it doesn’t. Doesn’t help to mute my voice or other tracks. When I sent a clip to others to listen to, they could not hear the crackling on their devices.

I’ve looked up lots of help forums, but can’t solve the problem. Any suggestions? many thanks!

Using a Lenovo laptop if that’s important :slight_smile:

2

I assume that your “project rate” (lower left corner of the main Audacity window) is “44100”. (That’s the default).

In the Windows Sound control panel, check the “Properties” for the Focusrite device and check (in both the Recording tab and Playback tab) that it is set to 44100.
To open the Windows Sound control panel:

  1. open the run dialog with Windows logo + R
  2. enter: mmsys.cpl
  3. press the OK button
3

Some Scarlett Focusrite drivers are being shipped with drivers set to 48000. So if 441000 doesn’t do it for you, try changing everything to 48000.

Also, it could be a buffer issue, but try this first. :smiley: